LA Drupal Glossary

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Submitted by christefano on Sun, 2010-05-16 20:44
Last updated by christefano on Fri, 2012-02-10 07:28
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This is a glossary of names and specialized words often used either at LA Drupal meetings or in places online, such as groups.drupal.org/la, ladrupal.org and #drupal-la on IRC.

When editing and adding to this page, please keep the entries alphabetized and use correct HTML markup (e.g. be sure to include anchor tags for each entry).

Code sprint #

Code sprints are organized events where attendees meet online or in person (and sometimes both) and work toward a shared goal. LA Drupal has hosted several code sprints in recent history, including sprints focused on resolving issues in the Drupal 7 issue queue and the Conference Organizing Distribution (COD) project.

Credit #

From "Producing Open Source Software" (Chapter 8. Managing Volunteers) by Karl Fogel:

Credit is the primary currency of the free software world. Whatever people may say about their motivations for participating in a project, I don't know any developers who would be happy doing all their work anonymously, or under someone else's name. There are tangible reasons for this: one's reputation in a project roughly governs how much influence one has, and participation in an open source project can also indirectly have monetary value, because some employers now look for it on resumés.

There are also intangible reasons, perhaps even more powerful: people simply want to be appreciated, and instinctively look for signs that their work was recognized by others. The promise of credit is therefore one of best motivators the project has. When small contributions are acknowledged, people come back to do more.

Droplabs #

Created in early 2011, Droplabs is a community-run coworking and hackerspace near Downtown Los Angeles. Droplabs serves the LA Drupal community by hosting many Drupal events each month, including the Downtown LA Drupal and Let's Launch! meetups, Drupal Coworking Friday and the weekly Pro Drupal 7 Development book study group.

The idea of what eventually became Droplabs was introduced during the opening announcements at DrupalCamp LA 2010 and evolved during BoF (birds of a feather) discussions at the DrupalCamp LA 2010 and Drupal Design Camp LA 2011 conferences.

Droplabs hosts public and private events not related to Drupal (e.g. launch parties, workshops, etc.), but its founders are firmly dedicated to promoting Drupal in and around Los Angeles.

Founders of Droplabs #

Droplabs was founded by 7 LA Drupal members representing themselves and half a dozen different companies in the LA Drupal community. At the time of this writing, 5 of the original 7 founders remain active and manage the space and produce events:

From the very beginning (including the first public discussion in October, 2010, and the original site visit in January, 2011), Droplabs has been a community-oriented organization. Droplabs is community-run, uses consensus-based decision making, and has weekly planning meetings that are open to all members.

DrupalCamp #

DrupalCamps are conferences loosely based on the BarCamp format which is a free, participant-led conference that is usually one or two days long. DrupalCamps are often sponsored by companies which help cover expenses such as food and a venue where the camp takes place. Lots of coding, lots of learning and lots of socializing inevitably takes place.

DrupalCamps happen all the time and all around the world. The camps produced by LA Drupal group members are DrupalCamp LA, which was one of the largest DrupalCamp conferences in the world in 2008, 2009, 2010, and Drupal Design Camp LA.

Drupal After Dark #

Drupal After Dark meetups are social occasions where alcohol is usually involved. Drupal After Dark is part of a growing movement that include the Drupal Happy Hour and Drinks and Drupal meetups around the world.

Drupal Café #

Drupal Café meetings are often casual get-togethers and are usually in the daytime at coffee and tea shops. These events are often spontaneous and without much planning, but some meetings have a specific agenda or focus. Many Drupal Café meetings have a theme of casual coworking.

GDO (and GDO/LA) #

GDO is an acronym for groups.drupal.org, one of the many websites where LA Drupal has a presence. GDO/la is the abbreviation for groups.drupal.org/la, LA Drupal's group site on GDO.

Git #

Git is a version control system that has all the right buzzwords: free, open source, distributed, high performance, cryptographic authentication and so on.

The LA Drupal web team has used Git to help manage the ladrupal.org website and related projects. LA Drupal also produced Git with Drupal 7, a Git training combined with a Drupal 7 code sprint, on June 12, 2010.

IRC #

IRC, or Internet Relay Chat, predates AIM and ICQ and is the granddaddy of "chat rooms" and instant messaging. With more than 30 chat rooms (called channels in IRC parlance) that are dedicated to various Drupal topics, the Drupal community uses IRC for live chat, online collaboration and back channels during meetings and conferences.

The channel for the LA Drupal group is #drupal-la at freenode.net. (The previous link opens in a web browser. The following link opens in your default IRC chat client: irc://freenode.net/#drupal-la.)

LA Drupal Association #

In 2010, LA Drupal became an unincorporated association and is officially recognized as a legal entity by the State of California. The LA Drupal user group now has the ability to receive donations and sponsorships large and small to help members produce the events, trainings and conferences that LA Drupal is known for, as well as cover its ongoing infrastructure and promotion costs.

The legal entity known as "LA Drupal Association" was created simply and exclusively for the purposes of fiscal responsibility. In its current incarnation, the LA Drupal Association has organizers Rain Breaw, John Romine, Chris Charlton and Christefano Reyes listed as the "officers" and Rain Breaw listed as "treasurer".

The only other use for this organization that's been discussed amongst the LA Drupal organizers is the possibility of offering group healthcare for LA Drupal members. This is still in the exploration phase. There may be other uses for this entity in the future, but LA Drupal user group members have not yet discussed them.

Events that the LA Drupal Association has been the fiscal agent for include Drupal Design Camp LA 2011, DrupalCamp LA 2011 and the Conference Organizing Distribution (COD) code sprint in October 2011. In February 2012, guidelines were proposed on the ladrupal-organizing mailing list for allocation of LA Drupal Association funds.

Manager #

LA Drupal has in the past had a handful of organizers who have called themselves "managers" and have been largely seen as leaders of the group by its members. The term "manager" has lost much of its meaning after several "managers" stepped down in May, 2011, yet continued to volunteer and organize group events more or less the same as they did when they were "managers".

Managers vs. Organizers vs. Admins vs. Moderators #

The LA Drupal group site at http://groups.drupal.org/la has "group organizers" that control the page layouts (using OG Panels) of the LA Drupal group site as well as the group's member list (using OG, or Organic groups) and group tags (using OG Vocabulary).

Since the first LA Drupal Governance meetup in July, 2011, this "group organizer" role has been referred to by some group members as a "group moderator" role and is the subject of an issue in the groups.drupal.org issue queue at http://drupal.org/node/1235206 to make the "group organizers" list more configurable.

Meetup #

Drupal meetups are regularly scheduled meetings that often have a specific agenda or focus. Meetups can be hosted anywhere, such as at a sponsored location, a member's home or office (or at the offices of the member's employer), at a café or restaurant, etc. and locations may have seating for anywhere around 10 to 60 (or more) attendees.

There are many meetup formats and LA Drupal meetups usually incorporate presentations, open Q&A, job announcements and lightning talks. There are numerous meetups in and around Los Angeles each and every month. There are up to 7 meetups in the LA Drupal user group each month that are listed on the community calendar at http://groups.drupal.org/la/events

LA Drupal name controversy #

In an effort to reduce work for themselves, the majority of LA Drupal managers at the time decided by majority vote in February, 2011 to control and consolidate the "LA Drupal" name and the "LA Drupal meetups" by reducing the number of "LA Drupal meetups" to just one a month.

To avoid the possible perception of confusion, other meetup organizers in and around Los Angeles and Los Angeles County were forbidden from using the wording "LA Drupal" in their name or branding, and they were welcome to organize "Drupal meetups" anywhere they'd like, the only "LA Drupal meetups" were only the meetups on the Westside.

This mandate was not particularly popular (if the voting on comments is used as a reference) and has not been observed by meetup organizers in the group other than those who made the decision.

Organizers #

LA Drupal is a very active user group and has many organizers and volunteers. A list of local area organizers who produce regular events was created in June, 2011 and includes (no particular order) Miguel Hernandez, Oliver Seldman, Scott Knight, Matt Chapman, Ishmael Sanchez, Benno Sebastian, Stewart Pringle, Kevin Kaland, Chris Charlton, Paul Chernick, Pete Benjamin, Matt Campbell, Chris Grant, William Estrada and Christefano Reyes. This is not intended to be a complete list and may be out of date.

Podcast # (and DrupalCast #)

A podcast is series of video or audio recordings, often delivered via RSS. Several Drupal podcasts are produced in the Drupal community, including the ones by DrupalEasy, Mustardseed Media, Lullabot, Be Circle, Himerus and, of course, LA Drupal.

The LA Drupal podcast, called the LA DrupalCast, is on hiatus. Previous episodes can be found on blip.tv and in iTunes.

Groups:
LA Drupal (Los Angeles Drupal)